400 people was marching for the river Mura that took place on Saturday, 6th of January in the border town Trate/Cmurek. The clear massage was provided: “ We are here for preservation of the Mura river and our living space, which is tiddly connected with the running river. We are demanding that the Mura river is deleted from all the documents, that are in favour of building the hydro-plants!”

Our numerous rebellious voices and fists are rising into the air together, we are crushing the world conspiracy of repressive apparatus that is suffocating us. With sisterhood* solidarity we are building solidarity, based on self-defense, that will break from the chains through the cracks and free all of us. Our fists won't stay silent! Touch me and I'll kill you!

Saturday’s protest (see video) was the third in a series against the planned hydroplant on the Mur river near Graz. The project, supported by right parties in power, the Grazer Volkspartie and FPO, along with social democrats, has met popular and political opposition.

When the parliament committee discusses the changes of the Aliens Act, we gave a symbolic word to the refugees themselves. On Friday, 20 January, at noon (12.00) we gathered at the Republic Square (Trg republike) and started reading the testimonies of the people who ran away from wars and persecutions.

It does not matter what was the reason for us to leave our homes or where we come from, but we are now in Slovenia and we want to live as a part of the society and the main problems that we are facing are the slowly procedures, the inefficient bureaucracy.

A lot of people are staying here for years, some 10 months or more and we are getting 18 euro per month which we are getting very rarely plus we are not allowed to earn our money by ourselves although we are doctors engineers, students of computer science, businessmen, economists, workers... but we are not allowed to work here and there is no support or help given to us by the government to teach us the Slovene language or to help us to be a part and continue our life in the Slovenian society.

The ministry of the interior affairs is intentionally slowing down the asylum procedures and because of that a lot of people are leaving Slovenia. In the last two years, every bureaucrat, decision maker, solves only one case per month!!! And only 11% of the asylum applications are solved positively!

People who are waiting, are getting depressed and they do not get a real psychological support. Every day is the same and nothing is changing, all we can do is just to wait, wait, wait... It is the same situation as being in war, we are just waiting for the mercy polit.

Last Thursday, one of our friends was attacked by three neo-nazis in the center of Ljubljana at 10 in the morning. Another guy was hit by car in front of the asylum home in Vic and the police is not solving this as racist attacks. One of the guys was waiting for two hours for the emergency to come, and doctors did not allow us to go inside, just because we are refugees. Everyday we are facing racism on the streets, in the asylum home, and in governmental institutions.

In the asylum home, strict rules are limiting our freedom, the food is not good, no cleaning service, no language courses, they are not helping us with enrolment in the educational system, no medical care except Painkillers. At closed type of institutions like Asylum homes we are deprived of our dignity and self-initiativeness. The racism of security guards makes us uncomfortable, the atmosphere is more like a prison than a place to live. Even if we have not received a status yet, we are not criminals.

When we come to a bank and want to open a bank account, they tell us that they cannot do it for us, because they think we might support terrorism with our money, and this is pure racism.

Special thanks to the slovene health system to send us a young doctor without specialization to practice her medical skills on us.

THE DEMANDS OF THE STRIKE :

1. Make our asylum procedures faster, do not make us wait forever.2. Change the law that is not allowing us to make our money during the long waiting period. Or try by yourselves and come to live in the asylum home with 18 euros per month.3. Improve our medical care, make it a proper medical care that will treat us as regular patients and not just give us painkillers for everything.4. Evaluate the work of the bureaucracy that is only solving one case per month. Evaluate the number of the negative decisions and the positive solutions that the asylum seekers receive in last year watch their jobs!5. Improve the system of learning the Slovene language, help the people to get into the educational system here in Slovenia.6. When you get the positive decision, you need to leave the asylum home in 15 days. You must wait for more than one month to get social support and 45 days to get money to rent a place. So there is a month between these 15 days and the 45 days when you only have 18 euros and you cannot afford to rent a place to stay. If you do not have a contract for a place to live, with a permanent address registered, you cannot get the Documents. It is a vicious circle that leaves one alone, without money and without a place to live.7. We need a general solution regarding one opening a bank account, because when one wants to do that, the bank does not want to make it, just because you are foreigner. This is racist and it must be solved urgently.8. We want free Urbana card for everyone waiting for the asylum. Since we cannot afford to buy it with the 18 euros. Our mobility is important for our integration. 9. Check the applications of the students from the asylum homes who wanted to enroll to university. No one got his decision yet, because they do not know what to do with people who do not have positive responses yet. The current law does not demand the status to start studying.10. Improve the living conditions at asylum homes, we want freedom of movement! 11.We ask you to treat us as human beings! We have dignity and we will not be silent!

We demand NOW to have a meeting with the Minister of Internal Affairs, who is responsible for the lives of asylum seekers and refugees, to talk to us and to start solving and giving answer to all listed demands above.